Klarinet Archive - Posting 001105.txt from 2003/03

From: Robert Howe <arehow@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Re: C clarinet
Date: Thu, 27 Mar 2003 06:44:58 -0500

Someone wrote:

"Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2003 23:37:15 -0500
Subject: Re: [kl] "C" clarinet - Dan Leeson take note
Message-ID: <56D5B15D.7B4FEFBA.0085C637@-----.com>

Last year I did the Bizet on the "C". It was substanialy easier. The sound
of the c balances the rest of the wind section better than the Bb does. I
guess Bizet hadn't quite got the orchestration thing together yet."

What an arrogant and stupid thing to write. The correspondent's own comment
that the C clarinet balances better than the Bb shows the truth--Bizet, even
at 17 years old, chose the C for valid artistic reasons, and it is the
correct clarinet to use here. It is also the *only* correct clarinet to use
here, Bb is as invalid as A, D or Eb clarinets would be.

I am continually baffled as to why artist level clarinet players don't use
C's when called for. Composers who call for the C clarinet include Berlioz,
Beethoven, Mahler, Mozart, all the Strausses, even Bizet at 17--is it
possible that they knew what they meant? Or had Mahler not "quite got the
orchestration thing together yet" in his sixth symphony?

My main instrument is oboe. If I show up to play a Bach cantata, written
for oboe d'amore, by transposing it onto oboe, I am rightfully considered an
ignoramus. Clarinettists should hold to the same standards of respecting
the composers' deliberate musical and artistic choices.

Robert Howe
Wilbraham MA

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